Digital Or Traditional? Which Sampling Should Fashion Retail Brands Adopt?
If you want to understand your customer better, will 5 seconds be enough or 50? Ideally, more. The point is, the longer the customer engages with your brand, the richer your insights become, and you get a better understanding of your customer preferences.
Enter, digital product sampling which guarantees better results in this aspect over traditional product sampling. Because, in conventional product sampling, which usually happens in stores, once the customer is out of the premises, the engagement period is over. There’s no concrete way to track their feedback. You keep creating more samples in the hope of optimum results.
On the other hand, digital product sampling enables you to track the customer’s experience from start to finish. Additionally, you can implement targeted experiential marketing strategies and create a personalized in-home experience. The data-driven approach allows you to know how to continue maintaining the relationship with your customers. Even if they do not purchase at the moment, they can constantly engage with your brand which is helpful in the future when they actually consider making a purchase.
Most importantly, COVID-19 has developed a hesitation among buyers to try physical samples. In this contactless economy, brands that were already experimenting with 3D design, virtual sampling, and digitization of the product development process proved to have a competitive advantage over those that didn’t.
Now, since we have understood how digital has a fair advantage over physical samples generally, let’s see why they fare well in the fashion industry as well.
Digital Product Sampling v/s Traditional Product Sampling In Fashion
Kellie Hubbard, head of operational excellence at Joules said, “I would be surprised if physical samples exist at all in 10 years’ time for a large proportion of the industry.”
Let’s understand the different reasons why this could be true.
Expenses:
Traditional:
When you make physical samples, expenses begin right from the time you buy materials, make the samples, and then ship them. Include the cost to remake the samples, and the expenses could be sky-rocketing. It becomes an even bigger number for wholesalers working with a global customer base, where a lot of money is spent on shipping only.
Digital:
In cases where the physical outfit is the end goal, samples are created using advanced 3D software and exchanged through digital mediums. Only when the digital sample is finalized, the process of manufacturing the physical sample begins. All kinds of changes in fabric, size, or color are taken care of digitally without actually making a physical sample. This means, no room for unnecessary expenses for shipping or remakes.
2. Time:
Traditional:
On average, the supply chain time for retail products is around 30-40 weeks. This includes the time to produce, ship, assess, and rework if necessary. Delays could also be caused in cases where the required fabric is not readily available. The pressure becomes real when brands are expected to launch a new collection every month.
Digital:
Since everything happens over digital mediums, the same tedious process which could take weeks in the traditional setting can be done within a few hours or days here. Instant feedback leads to instant modifications and quicker delivery to the target audience. In times like these where trends are changing rapidly, digital sampling can help you reach your audience at the right time before the trend vanishes.
3. Sustainability:
Traditional:
The carbon dioxide emissions even to produce one physical outfit is extremely high. Add to this the waste generated because of unused samples due to the over-sampling practices followed in the industry.
Digital:
Probably, physical samples might not stop existing. But using digital sampling, if earlier you produced 50 samples, it could be reduced to 2. While as per research, there could still be pollution with the digital sampling techniques, it is definitely a sustainable alternative to curb the extremely negative impacts of physical sampling right now.
4. Experiential Marketing:
Traditional:
With the pandemic, footfall in retail stores has decreased, thereby reducing the customer interaction with the product. So, assuring the buyer about your brand could be a difficult task during these times.
Digital:
Today, many companies including Neo Marche, are paving the way to creating an immersive shopping experience with digital showrooms and virtual marketplaces. This way, buyers can view, assess, and shop products in a virtual environment and not feel like they are missing out on the shopping experience. If anything, thanks to the increasing adoption of technologies by fashion brands, such experiences are being considered as an upgrade by buyers. The better the experience you create, the longer you can retain customer loyalty.
Key Takeaways:
Digital sampling can help brands to cut down on their expenses, as physical samples will be made only after the digital sample is finalized.
Unlike traditional sampling, digital sampling will allow brands to work within shorter timelines without affecting the quality of the products.
Sustainable fashion can be a reality when more people prefer digital sampling as the number of samples being made can be drastically reduced.
Even during a pandemic, brands can retain the shopping experience in the customers’ lives by creating an immersive digital showroom, virtual marketplace, and the likes.
Clearly, digital sampling is one of the effective ways to make the supply chain better. While there are contradictory opinions in favour of physical samples, many believe the upcoming generation who have not seen the world without such technology will continue to prefer digital over physical. Anyway, the bottom line is to constantly deliver without eliminating the essence of the brand and meet the customer where they are, with the best experiences. And if you are looking to get a headstart to go digital, we are right here!